Teaching assistants

These fall into three categories at LSE:

• Graduate teaching assistants - LSE PhD students who are employed as teachers
  
  
• Guest teachers - experts from other organisations invited to teach at the School, or IT and library staff
  
  
• Emeritus teachers - retired LSE emeritus professors and readers who are invited back to teach

Each year, the School employs around 500 graduate teaching assistants, and a number of other staff with teaching responsibilities who are on short-term and longer-term part-time contracts.

The School expects all graduate teaching assistants who are also registered students at the School, and who do not have prior teaching experience, to attend, as a minimum:

• a series of induction workshops (Postgraduates Who Teach: an introduction to teaching and learning - see Induction - graduate teaching assistants);
  
  
• the Deans' Induction for graduate teaching assistants; and
  
  
• any briefing sessions offered by the department in which they will be teaching.

It is also important that you are aware of the Guidance on Good Practice for the Employment of Graduate Teaching Assistants and Guest Teachers at LSE (PDF) [restricted access], the Code of Good Practice for Undergraduate Programmes: Teaching, Learning and Assessment, and Code of Good Practice for Taught Masters Programmes: Teaching, Learning and Assessment. Further details on all these codes of practice and how they relate to you are found in the LSE Handbook for Graduate Teaching Assistants. This also includes lots of other useful information to help you get started with your teaching.

The School is committed to supporting teaching assistants, and you are welcome to make use of the staff development opportunities available - particularly the Central events programme and the LSE Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCertHE), which would make you eligible for membership of the Higher Education Academy.

Finally, students often turn to their class teachers for advice on studying. Take a look at LSE Learning World for information for students on everything from essay writing to exam stress to IT skills to applying for jobs.

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